This invention relates to a decorative display device in the form of a globe with a circumnavigating simulated aircraft, and more particularly relates to such a display device which may be fitted with at least a main light source within the globe so that it also serves as a lamp.
Gloves having circumnavigating simulated aircraft have long been known. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,659,810; 2,434,250; 2,643,882; 2,811,356 and 2,916,850. All have simulated aircraft of one form or another carried by an arm extending from a central hub on the axis of the globe. This causes problems in that such an arrangement fails to support the aircraft in a stable and uniform manner resulting in an undesirable vibration or wobble as the aircraft rotates. When the arm extends through a narrow equatorial gap in the globe as in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,659,810 and 2,434,250, wobble of the arm can lead to stalling during rotation because of the rubbing of the arm against the edge of either the upper or lower hemisphere.
In addition, none of the above-mentioned patents disclose display devices which can also be used as a lamp. Of course, illuminated globes are well-known. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,419,598, 1,515,135, 2,171,509, 2,343,173, 2,345,800, 2,492,691 and 2,809,448. Globe-shaped lamp shades have also been proposed as in U.S. Pat. No. 649,079. However, to my knowledge, no one has as of yet produced a globe lamp which has a circumnavigating simulated aircraft. In fact, the only lamp of any kind which I know of having a circumnavigating simulated aircraft is shown in U.S. Pat. No. Des. 109,811, but that is not a globe lamp.
Perhaps, the failure of others to produce such a globe lamp comes from the difficulties encountered in providing a circumnavigating simulated aircraft with a stable equatorial orbit and in accommodating a central light source within a globe having a circumnavigating simulated aircraft. Those difficulties have been overcome with the present invention.